Michael Whelan is an Irish American Catholic New Yorker. He holds a master’s degree in theology but never puts that on his business resume. Whelan won first prize in The Leitrim Guardian 2012 Literary Awards. His poems have been published in The Coachella Review, The Eloquent Atheist, The Healing Muse, The Little Patuxent Review, and Innisfree Poetry Journal. His prose memoir pieces have appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and online on Irish Central. Whelan’s poem “Clay Feet,” included in After God, appeared first in the Martin Stannard August 1, 2013 Collection featured on The Best American Poetry blog. In 2015, eirways, a quarterly exploring the arts and culture of Ireland on both sides of the Atlantic, featured a selection from Whelan’s poems and prose around remembering the late, acclaimed Dermot Healy, one of Ireland’s finest writers.